Racism in St. Louis (California, Memphis: crime, neighborhoods, school)

[CharlieL]

I've been living in St. Louis for 3 months now and have experienced 3 incidents. I am Asian-American and lived in California most of my life. The first incident was soon after I moved here. I was walking down the street in in the Central West End when a yellow schoolbus full of African-American kids drove past. A bunch of them started yelling "*****" out the window. I couldn't believe it! The second incident occured at a suburban Kmart. I was just shopping when two teenage male African Americans walked behind me and one said to the other "I hate chinks." The third time was at a sandwich shop at the airport. Two African-American women were behind the counter and joking around. I walked up and they ignored me, although I know they saw me because one looked right at me. Then another African-American customer walked up and one of the women said "What can I get for you, honey?" Then I said that I was there first, and she rolled her eyes at me and said "What do you want?" At that point I just left.
I don't know if this is a common occurrance or if I just had bad luck. In all cases it was unprovoked and was directed at me by African-Americans. I also lived in Memphis, TN for a short while, and this never happened there. Is there something about St. Louis? I am seriously considering moving.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Sorry that happened to you. Typically when I think about racism I think about black vs. white, but any kind of racism can happen. Usually racism is most expected between majorities and minorities, and blacks are the majority right now.

I've never had any issues in St. Louis, but I only visit, I don't live there. I'm also white.

What neighborhood do you live in? Neighborhoods with more crime may have more racism.

[Northwoods Voyager]

Have heard from family members who reside in or near St. Louis relate incidents occurring similar to those that you have mentioned. It does appear that some peoples of what has been considered the minority have on occasion shown a great dislike and distrust of other minorities, esp. those of Asian decent. However, I do not believe that this is the norm. Perhaps just a few who may have been brought up to display their feelings in such an open and hostile manner.

Please give St. Louis another 'try' and reserve your judgment at the present time. Not all of any 'group' will behave such as you have posted here.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Moving to a different neighborhood may help, since some neighborhoods are rougher than others. But I'd suggest sticking it out in St. Louis. A few bigots doesn't represent the majority.

I hope you don't have any more incidents.

[CharlieL]

I live in the CWE, near the cathedral. I picked this area because of the shops and restaurants and it seemed more diverse. However, these things seem to happen at random. One was in the CWE, one in South County, and one at the airport. Like I said. I was in Memphis for a time, where there are actually more African-Americans and I never had a problem. There just seems to be more anger toward other minorities here and I don't know the cause.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

I don't know. It is possible you just got a bad sampling. I don't know what to tell you, though. There probably are racial tensions in St. Louis, but I'd only heard about them between blacks and whites.

[jojojohnson76]

I've never heard of that either, and I see a lot of Asians in STL.

I know that in some areas of California (LA comes to mind) there is a great hatred towards Asians by blacks. From what I've read, it seems that the hatred stems from the fact that Koreans own many businesses there (gas stations, convenience stores, etc).

I even heard a west coast rapper rap in a song "Korean mother f---ers was crooked so n----s had to burn and loot'em."

[bilikins]

My gosh, you bring back bad memories... I am half-asian myself, and I think that St. Louis is very tolerant compared to a lot of other places and even cities. Yes, there are rude food service workers (who may understandably be bitter/sad about life in general), but there isn't a lot of systematic discrimination/abuse of power by institutions here. Also, I noticed that the food service workers tend to be rude and bitter to *everyone,* not just asians.

I spent my college and post-college years in Boston, a so-called "progressive" city where I encountered blatant, KKK-like racism on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the night before I moved to St. Louis, a parking dispute with a neighbor (he stole my spot, so I parked in his spot and he freaked out and called the police) resulted in the police officer threatening me in front of my young daughter and forcing me to kneel in front of him and say disparaging remarks (about my gender, race, being a "dumb ____") while he and my neighbor laughed. Were I not in such a rush to move to St. Louis for school, I would have filed a civil rights complaint against him. I have yet to meet anyone as cruel and unethical and racist in St. Louis, so I've been very happy here.

[aragx6]

Thank you for sharing that story. What an awful thing to have gone through. That just goes to show incidents of this type sadly can and do happen all over America.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Charlie, it sounds like you got a bad sampling of St. Louis. I'm not trying to downplay the remarks made to you. I'm sure they hurt, but from what I've heard I don't think St. Louis is usually as racist as you've experienced so far. Try to stick it out a little more.

My history's teacher's wife lived in St. Louis for a while. She's Korean and as far as I know she didn't experience any problems.